German Bridge is Falling Down
Regular Prisoners * Colonel Hogan - Bob Crane * Corporal Louis LeBeau - Robert Clary * Corporal Peter Newkirk - Richard Dawson * Sergeant James Kinchloe - Ivan Dixon * Sergeant Andrew Carter - Larry Hovis Camp Personnel * Kommandant Wilhelm Klink - Werner Klemperer * Sergeant Hans Schultz - John Banner Semi-Regulars * Fraulein Helga - Cynthia Lynn * Corporal Karl Langenscheidt - Jon Cedar Guest Stars * Pilot - Forrest Compton * Co-Pilot - Hal Lynch Synopsis The episode begins with Schultz conducting a night time count of the prisoners of Barracks 2. The count has been asked for by Colonel Hogan, after he has earlier claimed that some of his men have been thinking of "some crazy escape plan." After the count has been conducted and the prisoners have been dismissed, Colonel Klink tells Hogan how appreciative he is of being informed about his men thoughts of escaping. Hogan then tells his men to "Smoke 'em if you have them," which his men do, before he continues to talk with Klink. Meanwhile, high in the air, the Pilot and Co-Pilot of a passing American bomber sees the lighted arrow that is created by the prisoners' lighters, which point towards a nearby bridge. The plane, which is the lead plane for a bomber squadron, leads the others towards the bridge. The plane then leads the attack on it, as the pilot promises the bombardier that he would give him a 3 day pass if he hits the bridge. The planes then start the attack before heading back for England. The next day, Klink informs the prisoners that the bridge is still standing. After a prisoner (Sergeant Carter) in the ranks comments that they would eventually get the bridge, Klink demands that the quilty party confess by stepping forward. All of the prisoners then step forward. After they have done it a second time, Klink informs the prisoners that since they are all quilty, then the recreation hall would be closed for a week. Hogan protests, announcing that they would be deprived of hearing their Tommy Dorsey records. Klink shows his 'sympathy' by announcing that the rec hall would now be closed for two weeks. He then have the prisoners dismissed. Now knowing that the planes have been unable to destroy the bridge, the prisoners decide to come up with a plan of their own to destroy it. inside Hogan's office, Carter is asked by Hogan to create a bomb with which to blow up the bridge. Carter quickly suggests that they create one by using chlorine gas, made from a combination of bleach and ammonia, which should be available in the camp's kitchen. Hogan then tells Corporal Newkirk to volunteer for kitchen duty so that he can get the ingredients that Carter needs, while he tells LeBeau, after the latter has asks what he could do to help, to stand by for chow mein duty so that he can poison in bridge in case Carter's plan doesn't work. Carter, assisted by Kinch, start his experiments, which are soon creating loud explosions underground. To keep the Germans from becoming too curious about the explosions, Hogan orders LeBeau to put up a sign (in English) which warns of nearby construction work. As this is happening, Klink is signing some requestion forms from Fraulein Helga inside his office. Klink then watches Schultz enter his office as Helga leaves. He asks Schultz for the prisoners' reaction to the closing of the rec hall before he informs Schultz that he wants him to go check the barracks for any sign of tunnel activity in case the prisoners decide to use the rec hall closing as a reason to escape the camp. As he tells Schultz this, the two hears several explosions, with Schultz complaining about them. Klink tells him that he has earlier called Berlin about them and he tells him that they had told him that they had no idea about them. But, Klink then says that he thinks that what is going on must be a top secret military project, although the sign makes it appear that it is a civilian one. Klink then tells him that if he is asked about the explosions by the prisoners, he is to tell them that he knows nothing. Schultz replies that he didn't think he would have a problem doing that, to which Klink quickly agrees. Schultz then leaves. Back in Barracks 2, some of the prisoners are playing cards, and still hearing explosions. They then hear some tapping. They go over to a trunk which sits over a tunnel, and open it, from out of which comes a frazzled Carter, just as Schultz and Corporal Langenscheidt are about to enter the barracks. The prisoners quickly put Carter into a bed and as LeBeau feeds him some 'medicine', LeBeau informs Schultz that Carter is sick, while Langensheidt starts searching for any possible tunnels. Newkirk then convinces Schultz to play some poker with him. After a while Langensheidt tells Schultz that he is finished searching. The pair then leave, not knowing that Newkirk has pilfered some cartridges from Schultz's weapon belt. He then muses to Hogan that powder from 500 of them should make a nice bomb. Hogan agrees and start plans to get them from the camp's ammo dump. Although informed that the last explosion has caved in the tunnel that they would have used to get to the building, he tells LeBeau to get ready the paints and brushes that they have left over from the sign painting. Schultz is shown walking the grounds and comes in sight of the ammo building, and sees it covered with insults. After reading them, he quickly informs Klink who is now furious. Hogan tells him that the other prisoners are just letting off some steam in response to Klink closing down their recreation hall. Klink demands that the building be painted, after being talked into it by Hogan. After a tarp is placed over the building, and so that they can have the necessary time to sneak out the correct amount of ammunition that they needed, Hogan has his men put on only a thin coat of paint on the building to help delay things. Klink, upon seeing it, demands that it be painted over. It is, but it is now painted pink. Klink, now furious, demands that it be painted right this time. Carter then appears with a board with paint samples to show to Klink. Several minutes is then taken up suggesting which paint color to use for the building before it is finally painted. Later, Carter is shown wrapping up a box that is loaded with the newly made bomb. Once this is done, the Heroes start to wonder how to actually get the bomb to the bridge. Upon seeing the mail courier, it is decided that the bomb would be placed in the sidecar of his motorcycle, since he would be going along the road to Braunstien which would go cross the bridge. After Kinch has calculated the distance and travel time to the bridge to set up the timer, LeBeau distracts the courier while Newkirk places the bomb package with the rest of the mail. Only later do they learn that Schultz has bribed the courier so that he would make a detour to Düsseldorf with a pound of coffee for his wife. After learning this, the prisoners go back into Barracks 2 and look at the maps, where they soon discover that there are three posts along the courier's route, all connected by telephone, with #9 being the closet one to the detour point. Hogan then goes to Klink's office and informs him that his men had plan to bribe him with some wine which they would then use to get him to reopen the rec hall, which the courier would be picking up for them in Düsseldorf. Upon hearing this, Klink gets on the phone, phones the post and orders that the courier under no circumstances is to be allowed to make a detour. He then informs Hogan that he is ready to send the prisoners involved into the cooler, and to destroy not only all of their Jimmy Dorsey and Timmy Dorsey records, but also those of The Andrews Sisters. At about this point, as the courier is driving across the bridge, the bomb in his sidecar explodes, destroying the bridge. Klink, who is adding Bing Crosby to the list of those whose records he would destroy, and Hogan hears the explosion from inside Klink's office, and when Klink comments that he wishes that they would finish with the construction, Hogan replies that he didn't think that he would be hearing any more explosions. When asked how he is so sure of that, Hogan comments that it is a guess. The next day, Klink, during another roll call, informs the prisoners that the Adolf Hitler bridge has been destroyed, which is being investigated. And that he is asking for volunteers to help rebuild it. Hogan quickly offer his men, in exchange for the reopening of their rec hall, which Klink accepts. The other prisoners start to protest as Klink leaves, which Hogan quickly stops. He then informs his men that they are going to plant a new bomb within the new bridge's structure during it construction so that it would explode after the completion of the new bridge. Story Notes * This is both the seventh produced episode of the series, and the seventh one to be shown on television. * The actor playing the Pilot (Forrest Compton) appears often in Hogan's Heroes - as both a 'good guy' or as a German officer. * In an oddity, Carter has to escape a collapsing tunnel and comes up through a foot locker. * In the opening 'montage' credits that run throughout the series, Larry Hovis' character, Carter is shown behind beakers, test tubes, et al mixing chemicals - that shot is from this episode when he is down in the tunnel trying to concoct a bomb using cleaning solutions from the camp kitchen. * When Klink threatens to smash any Bing Crosby's records that he finds, it was a sly allusion to Bing Crosby Productions, the production company which produced the series for CBS. Quotes Inside an American bomber which was leading a squadron that was flying near Stalag 13, the plane's Pilot and Co-Pilot are looking down and see the lighted arrow that was formed by the prisoner's lights, which pointed towards the nearby bridge, the planes' target: * Pilot: Hogan's Heroes. * Co-Pilot: Now that's what I call service. -------------- After learning that the bombers had been unable to destroy the bridge: * Kinchloe: Look, I know that arrow was pointed in the right direction! I took the bearings from the roof of Klink's office. * Hogan: It doesn't matter, Kinch. The Adolf Hitler bridge is still in business. * Carter: Yeah, and Klink's happy - nasty happy. * Hogan: Let's make him unhappy - nasty unhappy. Let's knock out that bridge. -------------- As the prisoners start gathering materials so that he could destory the bridge after the bombers have failed: * Hogan: What kind of explosions have we got, Carter? * Carter: Three firecrackers and a can of lighter fluid. * Hogan: Firecrackers? * Carter: Well, sure. You remember - we told Klink LeBeau was part Chinese and we had to have firecrackers to celebrate Chinese New Years. * LeBeau: And I cooked that whole pot of chow mein... with sauerkraut. * Hogan: Please - not while I'm plotting. -------------- After Hogan has come up with a plan to destroy the bridge: * Hogan: Kinch, you go with Carter and help him set up his bomb factory in Tunnel Number 3. * Kinchloe: Right, Colonel. * LeBeau: What about me, Colonel? What do I do? * Hogan: LeBeau, my boy, I'm holding you in reserve. * LeBeau: What? * Hogan: If Carter's bombs don't do it, we may have to poison that bridge. -------------- After Carter's experiment causes a loud explosion inside one of the tunnels: * Hogan (to Carter): Carter? Carter? Are you OK? * Carter: Oh, yeah. Boy that stuff is really unstable! You've got to get the mixture just right. You gotta expect a few little explosions. * Hogan: Oh sure, sure. * Kinchloe: You keep that up and Klink'll be down here in minutes and there goes the ball game! * Hogan: I think I have an idea on how to explain the noise. Carter, keep working... oh, you do have insurance? -------------- After Carter suggests giving it one more try, after having destroyed one of the tunnels: * Hogan: We still gotta figure a way to make more ammunition. * Carter: Well, I'm still willing to try, Colonel. * Hogan: Whose side are you on? ------------- Inside Klink's office, Colonel Klink is speaking to Sergeant Schultz, telling him that he was going to go to the barracks to check for any tunneling. Klink also commented on the recent explosions that had been occurring around the camp: * Klink: If the prisoners asks about the explosions, you know nothing. You are ignorant. * Schultz: I can handle that. * Klink: I know. -------------- Schultz turns a corner and sees a number of insults which had been painted on the ammo building: * Hess is a mess. Himmler is a rat fink. Göring is a fat rat fink. Klink is bucking for rat fink. -------------- After hearing Kinch calculate the distant and travel time between the camp and the soon to be destroyed bridge, Hogan comments: * Hogan: My son the mathematician. -------------- After learning that the courier was planning to make an unscheduled stop in Düsseldorf to pick up a gift for Sergenat Schultz, Klink announces while on the phone: * Klink: If those orders are not carried out, both you and the courier will be court-martialed, shot and sent to the Russian front! -------------- After Klink and Hogan hears the explosion of the bridge while inside Klink's office: * Klink: I wish they would finish with that construction work. * Hogan: Oh, I don't think you'll hear any more explosions. * Klink: How do you know? * Hogan: Just a wild guess. -------------- After stopping his men protests of having been volunteered to help the Germans rebuilt the Adolf Hitler bridge: * Hogan: Shhh. Alright, alright. We're going to rebuild the bridge with a very special feature. * Newkirk: What do you mean by that, Colonel? * Hogan: It'll be the only bridge in the world with a built-in bomb. Bloopers * No bulletin board outside Klink's office. * Klink's office window appears to the left (his right) of his desk in this episode. Later in the series, the window is consistently to Klink's left. * The map of central Europe behind Colonel Klink's desk, shows a West and East Germany. Germany was not divided until after World War II. * At one point in the episode, the prisoners put up a sign to divert attention from what they are really doing - the sign is in English - an obvious red flag in the middle of Germany (but understandable in terms of cost - if they showed a sign in German, it was expensive back then to add text in English to the screen). * In one scene where they are painting a building, in the background, you can clearly see palm trees - unlikely to be growing in any part of Germany. * Larry Hovis is wearing a wedding ring. In other episodes, his character, Carter, is protrayed as single and naive in the ways of women. * The German city of Düsseldorf, which is mentioned as being near the courier's route to the bridge, is located in the northwestern German Rhineland, which is no where near Hammelburg, which is located in the southeastern German state of Bavaria. External links * German Bridge is Falling Down at TV.com * German Bridge is Falling Down at the Internet Movie Database * German Bridge is Falling Down episode capsule at Webstalag 13 * Hogan's Heroes Fanclub * The Hofbrau Television stories Category:Season One